Home Bargains moves up UK retailers’ league table

Mar 2 2009 Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL value retail group TJ Morris is reporting a 25% increase in sales at its Home Bargains chain for the first two months of the year.

This weekend, the company was also officially named as Britain’s second biggest independent grocer, in an annual league table published by The Grocer magazine.

TJ Morris is now second only to newsagent chain Martin McColl after moving up from third place last year, leapfrogging budget food chain Farm Foods.

The 25% year-on-year sales increase follows on from its year-end results for 2008, which showed operating profit reaching £34.7m – a £5m increase on 2007 figures.

Turnover has also demonstrated impressive growth, coming in at £383m, up from £322m in 2007.

The Grocer league table – which lists the UK’s top 50 largest independent grocers – shows that TJ Morris is the most profitable of any of the others on the list.

The company actually holds one third of the entire profit of the sum of the companies on the list.

Operations director Joe Morris said: “We’re very pleased to have moved up to second in this list of leading British grocers.

“We’ve got ambitious expansion plans for the business and are confident of improving our turnover and profits again this year.

“Our position in this list is testament to the hard work that all our staff have put in over the past few years to move the company forward and facilitate our rapid expansion and growth.”

TJ Morris intends to double Home Bargains in size in the next three to four years.

By 2015, it expects to hit its £1bn turnover target, grow the number of stores nationwide to 350 stores – with the potential for 600 across the UK – and employ more than 10,000 staff.

Over the next six months, the company is investing £15m in opening 30 new stores, some of which will be located in former Woolworths outlets, across the country, creating 1,200 new jobs for the UK.

Work is almost completed on its £35m distribution centre at the Axis Business Park in Liverpool – which will enable it to grow its 170-strong store network and further increase its turnover.